


Falling Petals

by Bvffy



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Artemis Crock - Freeform, F/F, How Do I Tag, M/M, Post Season 1, Snaibsel, Young Justice - Freeform, Zatanna Zatara - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-29
Updated: 2018-08-29
Packaged: 2019-07-04 04:38:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15833904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bvffy/pseuds/Bvffy
Summary: Zatanna's chest aches when Wally hugs Artemis; it gets harder to breathe whenever he kisses her.She knows why, but can't admit it to herself. Even after she starts coughing up flower petals, and all it does is get worse over time.(Hanakuki Disease)





	Falling Petals

There was something wrapping itself around Zatanna’s lungs, suffocating her a little more with each breath she took. At first she thought it was simply because of the cold weather. She wasn’t the first member of the Team to get sick recently, so she had probably caught it off them.

But then the coughing started. Flower petals, pink blossoms the size of a penny, fell into her hands. 

“Zee, you okay?” She looked up, quickly crushing the petals in the palm of her hand. Artemis had stopped walking towards the lounge to face her, looking concerned. Wally, who had his hand wrapped around her waist, stopped too. Zatanna felt her chest tighten. 

“Must be catching a cold,” she lied, walking fast to catch up with the others. The petals suddenly felt as heavy as stones in her clenched hand. 

What the hell was happening? 

~~~

It has been a week now since the coughing had began and it showed no signs of letting up. With each cough, she could feel it getting worse.

The Team knew she was ill – she could tell by the worried glances they would occasionally throw her way. Each time she coughed it was like her entire body was trying to reject the petals to the point where her ribs ached with the effort. She didn’t understand what was happening to her, but there had to be an explanation. Yet the part of her that would have looked it up straight away was afraid at what she would find. Ever since the Dr Fate incident, she had been hesitant to do anything without first thinking about all the consequences. 

They were walking back to the bio-ship after a scouting mission that had quickly escalated into a full-blown attempt to prevent the destruction of Star Labs. Just a regular day at the office. She was walking with Artemis when Wally sped up behind them, nimbly wrapping his arms around Artemis and pulling her in for a kiss.

Zatanna barely had time to react before her body was racked with violent coughs. Bracing a hand against the nearest building, she bent double. Her eyes watered and her throat burned, but she forced herself to swallow, breathing hard. Artemis was at her side instantly, gently rubbing her back. 

She lowered her hand to see the usual sight of those damned blossom petals when something darker caught her eye. In the fading light, it looked black, but Zatanna would recognise it anywhere: blood. She could taste the metallic tang in her mouth too. Forcing herself not to panic, she stood back up while subtly throwing the petals behind her. 

Artemis removed her hand, but stayed close like she was afraid her friend might collapse. “Zee, you’ve been like this all week, you need to rest.” 

“I’m fine,” she said as convincingly as she could, but she couldn’t meet Artemis’s eye. 

“Artemis is right,” came Aqua Lad’s firm voice. “Until you recover, you need to stay at the Cave.” 

She wanted to protest, but fighting Calder was pointless when he made up his mind. Not to mention trying to convince Artemis, who was still giving her the ‘I know you’re lying’ look. She sighed. “Fine, I’ll stay at the Cave.” 

~~~

Two days. It had been two days since Caldor had made his decision to keep Zatanna off missions until she was better. The trouble was, she didn’t think she was getting better. She had taken to locking herself in her room because she didn’t want to face the others. Or, more specifically, Dick trying to avoid her since their breakup. 

Not that she would admit it out loud, but there was also another reason: she hated seeing Wally and Artemis together. It was stupid – she should be happy that Artemis was happy. Yet the thought of Wally with his hand in hers made Zatanna feel like she couldn’t breathe. Her chest tightened each time she saw them together and it had become so painful that she just couldn’t do it any more. 

Artemis would probably laugh at how stupid she was being; it wasn’t like she had feelings for Wally. No, that definitely wasn’t it. But that only left one other explanation and she knew, deep down, that she was right. She liked Artemis more than a friend should, but she couldn’t tell her. It had to remain a secret, which was ironic because she first realised she had feelings for the archer when they had gone on a girl's night out where Zatanna had tried asking Artemis about her secrets. Oh how the tables had turned. 

But she there was no way she could keep up this act. Sooner or later, the Team would find out about her coughing up petals, and more recently blood. She had to find out what was wrong, so she got out her laptop and tried googling her symptoms. There were more results than she thought there would be. Apparently, she wasn’t the only one to have got this disease. 

She easily discovered what it was. A disease by the name of Hanahaki, where literal vines wrapped themselves around the victim, slowly but surely killing them. It was caused by loving someone who didn’t love you back and the only way to treat it was if that person realised their love for you. Zatanna's blood ran cold. But as she scrolled, she came across another form of treatment – surgery to have the vines removed, but at the cost of losing your feelings forever. That wasn’t an option for her, she couldn’t risk losing how she felt. 

She wouldn’t do it, even if it killed her. 

~~~

Artemis came to visit her on the third day. She had nearly broken down Zatanna's door by knocking so hard. Admittedly, Zatanna had initially ignored her, letting her stand outside for a good five minutes before finally giving up and letting her in. Sometimes she wished Artemis wasn’t so determined, but it was also one of the things she loved most about her. 

The thought alone made her want to cough, but she forced it down. If she coughed anymore, she was afraid she might bring up her lungs. When she had tried leaving her room this morning, she had rushed back in almost immediately at the sight of Wally kissing Artemis and threw up in her toilet. Blood and petals had floated there, taunting her until she flushed them away. It was the first time she has thrown up and knew from looking at the symptoms that it wouldn’t be long now. 

“This has to stop, Zee.” The sound of Artemis speaking to her caught her attention. 

“Stop what?” she asked, her voice coming out raspy. 

Artemis crossed the room easily and reached out to place her hand on Zatanna’s forehead. She found that she didn’t have the strength to push Artemis away and any sudden movement to dodge would only make her dizzy, so she let her do it. Her hand was surprisingly cold against her forehead. “You’re burning up,” stated the archer, “you have to see someone about this.” 

“It’s just a cold, it’ll pass eventually,” insisted Zatanna, knowing full well that was a lie. She moved to sit on the bed to give her an excuse to step away from Artemis. She couldn’t bare being so close to her now and she hated herself for it. 

Artemis crossed her arms and stared her down. It was such an Artemis thing to do, Zatanna couldn’t help but smile. She loved that pose. Too late she realised her mistake. 

Nausea swirled in her stomach as she made a dash for the bathroom. More blood came up as she retched, but instead of blossom petals, an entire flower forced its way up her throat. When she was sure she had stopped spilling the contents of her stomach, she fell back against the bathroom wall, breathing hard. Despite that, it still felt like she wasn’t getting enough air. The vines were getting impossibly tight now. 

Artemis knelt beside her, staring at her. Then she seemed to make up her mind about something. She took Zatanna’s hand and helped her shakily to her feet. “Come on,” she said as she walked Zatanna back to her bed. 

Instantly, Zatanna flopped onto it and curled up, too exhausted to do anything else. Artemis just smiled softly, rolling her eyes, before wrapping a blanket around her. “Get some sleep,” she said. 

Zatanna closed her eyes, doing her best to ignore the scratching feeling of the petals in her throat. 

~~~

When she woke, Artemis was sat in her desk chair watching her from across the room. “Have you been here all this time?” she asked groggily. 

Instead of replying, Artemis stood up, walked purposefully around the bed and kissed her. Zatanna was so surprised, she didn’t know how to react, but then Artemis was already pulling away. 

“For someone who can speak backwards fluently, you’re an idiot sometimes,” muttered Artemis, glaring at her now. 

“I- what?” For once, Zatanna was speechless. 

“When I first saw the flower petals you coughed up, I thought I was just hallucinating. You threw them behind you so fast, I didn’t get to see properly.” 

Zatanna winced. “You saw that?” 

Artemis laughed. “If I can catch Robin sneaking cookies from the Cave kitchen, I think I can spot you throwing away flower petals.” 

She should have known Artemis would have seen her. Out of the Team, Robin was probably the only one who could out-stealth her on missions. 

“And then,” Artemis continued, “I saw the flower in your toilet.” 

“I forgot to flush it,” she groaned. Amateur mistake. 

“Lucky you didn’t,” replied Artemis, “I looked it up. Hanahaki disease? It didn’t take long to realise who you loved.” She said that last part so softly Zatanna had to strain to hear it. She felt like a complete fool. 

“I’m sorry, Arty. I should’ve-" 

“You should've told me,” interrupted Artemis. 

“I didn’t want to put you in that position. Besides, you’re with Wally and I didn’t know if you loved me back,” Zatanna replied hopelessly. 

“First of all, there’s something you should know,” said Artemis awkwardly. “Wally’s dating Dick. I’m just his beard so the others won’t catch on, but I think it’s pretty obvious.” 

“That’s actually not that surprising.” Zatanna couldn’t help but laugh.

“And second.” Artemis met her gaze. “I love you too.” 

Zatanna finally felt like she could breathe again. For the first time in what felt like weeks, her body felt light, like the weight of the world was finally gone from her shoulders. And she knew, the vines had gone just as quickly as they had come. 

She smiled and reached up to kiss Artemis back. “I love you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Not so happy with this one, but I wanted to write something based on this concept, so...
> 
> Hoped it wasn't a waste of your time?


End file.
